Tuesday, October 21, 2014

Millions of girls in the developing world are missing out on education and a chance to pull themselves out of poverty due to preventable blindness, The Fred Hollows Foundation said today, on the International Day of the Girl Child (Saturday, 11 October 2014).

Foundation CEO Brian Doolan said two-thirds of the world’s blind people are women, and often the disparity is even greater for girls, compared to boys.

An estimated 19 million children worldwide have a visual impairment and 1.4 million of those are blind. Around three-quarters of these are in the poorest regions of Africa and Asia.

When adults are affected by blindness, it is often girls who are pulled out of school to stay at home and act as carers.

“This is not just a health issue – most of these girls are in developing countries, where it is already harder for them to escape the cycle of poverty,” Mr Doolan said.

“In the developing world, there are lots of little girls who are looking after parents, grandparents, older brothers and sisters, aunties and uncles who have gone blind.

“Whether girls have preventable blindness themselves, or are caring for an adult, if they miss out on education, they are generally less skilled and earn less when they grow up.

“So blindness has a disproportionate impact on young girls, particularly in developing countries, and the impact continues through the generations, if they have their own children.”

Blindness also heightens the risk of dying for children. It’s estimated that half of all children who become blind will die within two years and those who live are only expected to reach 40 years of age.

However, around 40 percent of childhood blindness can be prevented or treated with simple interventions, such as vitamin supplements and immunisation.